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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by State: Massachusetts

Why Are Massachusetts Opioid Prescribing Rates Higher in Rural Versus Urban Areas?
Examines opioid prescribing trends in Massachusetts according to metro versus nonmetro patient characteristics, facility and provider availability, opioid supply and demand, and more. Utilizes 2010-2014 Massachusetts All-Payer Claims (MAPC) data and discusses the factors that lead to geographic differences in opioid prescribing.
Author(s): Alicia Sasser Modestino, Gary J. Young, Mahmudul Hasan, Jiesheng Shi, Noor E. Alam
Citation: PLoS One, 21(5), e0349247
Date: 05/2026
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Massachusetts Rural Primary Care Workforce
Offers maps and tables of the primary care workforce distribution in Massachusetts in 2025. Includes county-level data and rural and urban comparisons.
Author(s): S.C. Woolcock, C.H.A. Andrilla, L.A. Garberson, J.M. Graves
Date: 05/2026
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Massachusetts Rural Behavioral Health Workforce
Offers maps and tables of the supply and distribution of behavioral health clinicians in Massachusetts in 2025. Includes county-level data and rural and urban comparisons.
Author(s): S.C. Woolcock, C.H.A. Andrilla, L.A. Garberson, J.M. Graves
Date: 05/2026
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Massachusetts Rural Obstetrical Workforce
Offers maps and tables of the obstetricians and advanced practice midwives workforce distribution in Massachusetts in 2025. Includes county-level data and rural and urban comparisons.
Author(s): S.C. Woolcock, C.H.A. Andrilla, L.A. Garberson, J.M. Graves
Date: 05/2026
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Delivering Quality: Maternity Care Innovation in Critical Access Hospitals
Presents case studies of six Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) that are high performers on maternity care quality measures. Summarizes interviews with leaders from each CAH regarding the benefits of their Perinatal Quality Collaboratives, use of safety bundles, training activities, and other successes in providing maternity care.
Author(s): Madeleine Pick, Hamdi Abas, Megan Lahr, Mikayla Reinke
Date: 02/2026
Sponsoring organization: Flex Monitoring Team
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Evaluation of the Making Care Primary Model
Provides an overview of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center's Making Care Primary (MCP) Model. Explores model participation, participants' early implementation experiences, and the model's chances for meeting model expansion criteria related to cost and quality.
Additional links: Findings at a Glance
Date: 02/2026
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
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Selected Rural Healthcare Facilities in Massachusetts
Shows the state's Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), Rural Emergency Hospitals (REHs), and Rural Health Clinics (RHCs), as well as Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) sites and short term/PPS (Prospective Payment System) hospitals located in rural areas.
Additional links: Massachusetts Rural Health Facility Table
Date: 01/2026
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Travel Time to Treating Facility and Mortality in Men With Prostate Cancer
Examines the association between longer travel time to treatment and survival among prostate cancer patients. Uses data from a survey of 159,943 patients from Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Utah, and Washington. Features statistics with breakdowns by two levels of population density.
Author(s): Stephan M. Korn, Filippo Dagnino, Danesha Daniels, et al.
Citation: JAMA Network Open, 8(12), e2546812
Date: 12/2025
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Paying Family Caregivers: Self-direction in Medicaid Personal Care
Compares characteristics of dually eligible older adults receiving caregiving through either self-direction and non-self-direction, including personal demographics, health conditions, healthcare utilization, and rurality. Discusses rural findings in light of workforce shortages in rural communities. Includes analysis of Medicaid data from 6 states with reliable self-direction data as well as analysis of characteristics for 41 states and Washington, D.C.
Author(s): Yiqing Kuang, Katherine E.M. Miller
Citation: Health Affairs Scholar, 3(11)
Date: 11/2025
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FY 2025: HRSA's Rural Health Grants – Massachusetts Fact Sheet
HRSA Federal Office of Rural Health Policy investments in Massachusetts in Fiscal Year 2025. Lists grant recipients, award amounts, award recipient locations, and congressional district.
Date: 11/2025
Sponsoring organization: Federal Office of Rural Health Policy
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